British soldiers in Afghanistan are being supplied with a new “super weapon” to attack Taliban fighters more effectively…

The “enhanced blast” weapon is based on thermobaric technology used in the powerful bombs dropped by the Russians to obliterate Grozny, the Chechen capital, and in US “bunker busters”. Defence officials insisted yesterday that the British bombs were different. “They are optimised to create blast [rather than heat]”, one said, adding that it would be misleading to call them “thermobaric”.

So-called thermobaric weapons have been used by the US against suspected al-Qaida and Taliban underground bases. Combined heat and pressure kill people over a wide area by sucking the air out of lungs and destroying internal organs.

Defence officials described the new weapon as a shoulder-launched “light anti-structure munition”.